I am going to lyon for 4 days and am looking for a good day trip and contact information for day trip tour operators either to the alps or a wine tasting tour or maybe a day cruise down the river. Does anyone have any information or opinions on possible day trips from lyon? Thanks!!

Check out Navig'Inter for info on cruises down the Rhone from Lyon to Vienne, or dinner cruises (www.naviginter.fr - site in French, let me know if you need help understanding it!!).
WHen my parents came to visit Lyon, they did a wine-tasting tour in the Beaujolais region that they booked via the Tourist Office. The Philibert coach company (www.philibert.fr) does Beaujolais tours and daytrips to the medieval village of Perouges, but their Web site is all in French, and not very helpful! You might want to phone or email instead. Contact details are given on the Web site at: http://www.philibert.fr/tour_tourisme_receptif.php

I would suggest Le Puy-en-Velay. It's a beautiful town in the Augergne built on a series of volcanic landforms.

If you're only going to be in Lyon four days, I suggest you stay put. Especially if you travel there one morning stay three nights and leave the afternoon of the fourth day. Lyon is an incredibly fun city and there's more than enough to do right there.

If you have more time and really want to day trip I'll go along and suggest Le Puy-en-Velay too. It's in the Auvergne region. (Sorry to be the spelling police GaryCA but it really helps with place names for the search engines.)

The train from Perrache at the south end of the Presqu'Ile takes about 2.5 hours to get there and it's a beautiful ride. The Le Puy train station is right next to the old town. You can walk around the base of the town to the church that perches on the steepest pinnacle. After climbing it you can take the street from the west edge of Le Puy up to the cathedral. It's one of France's most picturesque, according to a guide book I read. It really is beauriful.

After that you can walk on up to the Notre Dame statue made from cannons captured in the Crimean war. Make sure you try some of the lentils. They have A.O.C. status in France just like wines do.

Here are some photos:

http://ggc.free.fr/le_puy_galerie.htm

For a trip in the Alps I'd recommend Annecy.

Steve